News

After more than half a decade of service, our CEO Karen Lyon Reid has retired from The Lady Musgrave Trust.

Karen served as CEO of The Lady Musgrave Trust for the past six years, and was on the board prior to that. We would like to recognise and thank Karen for her service and commitment to fighting women’s homelessness and improving the lives of young women in Queensland.

“Karen has been an exceptional leader of The Lady Musgrave Trust for many years, first as a Director and then as CEO,” The Lady Musgrave Trust President Louise Kelly says. “She has put her heart and soul into ensuring that The Lady Musgrave Trust is able to continue providing accommodation and services to women in QLD who are at risk of homelessness.

We acknowledge Karen’s leadership and commitment to helping women in need. During this time she has been a true guardian of the legacy of The Lady Musgrave Trust.

Over this six years, the Trust has:

• Purchased 11 units to provide accommodation for women and their children in crisis
• Produced and distributed 60,000+ Handy Guides for Queensland women in need
• Secured funding for, developed and distributed The Handy Guide for Older Women
• Secured funding for and began developing a Handy Guide for women experiencing domestic and family violence
• Secured funding for and worked towards the digitisation of the Handy Guides for multiple audiences
• Managed annual fundraising events, as well as the Annual Forum for Women and Homelessness, which pivoted to a national online event in 2021

Karen’s work was driven by the impact The Lady Musgrave Trust could have on women in the community.

“It has been a pleasure continually developing the Trust, along with the Board, to make a difference to a woman’s life,” she says. “To change their path, so they can lead a healthier and happier life.”

“I would like to thank all of those who supported myself and the Trust over the years and those who worked closely with me to achieve what we did.”

Stepping into the role as CEO is Victoria Parker. Before joining the Lady Musgrave Trust, Victoria managed her own consultancy specialising in social impact and community engagement, with a particular focus on community, family, and housing-related clients. Over the last five years Victoria has played a leadership role in several flagship community-focused projects, including Logan Together – one of Australia’s largest child and family development programs.

Victoria has until recently served as the Chair of the Lady Bowen Trust, a charitable trust that helps Queenslanders find safe and stable housing. She is looking forward to pouring her skills, experience, and energy into achieving the vision of The Lady Musgrave Trust.

While we are sad to see Karen go, we wish her the best for her next chapter, and we’re sure she’ll bring the same winning approach to her future endeavours that she brought to The Lady Musgrave Trust.

“The Lady Musgrave Trust thank Karen for her service and wish her all the best in her retirement,” Louise says.

Thank you, Karen.

After more than nine years of service, our President and Chairman Patricia McCormack is retiring from The Lady Musgrave Trust.

Patricia has served as President on the Board of The Lady Musgrave Trust for the past six years, and as a Director for three years before that. We would like to recognise and thank Patricia for her long-time service and commitment to fighting women’s homelessness and improving the lives of young women in Queensland.

“It was my honour and pleasure to serve as President and Chairman of the Board for this magnificent charitable organisation,” says Patricia.

“The journey for me has been very rewarding, although at times very challenging and time demanding. I am very proud of the Trust, its place in the community and the services delivered which make it the successful organisation that it is today.”

Patricia has been a huge changemaker for the Trust. Some of her achievements during her tenure include:

• Expanding our property portfolio
• Positioning The Handy Guide for Homeless Women as one of our most valuable support services
• Completing an 18-month project to address homelessness for older women
• Launching the creation of new marketing and branding for the Trust
• Strengthening our governance framework and the diversity of expertise within our board
• Significantly increasing our supporter base and financial position

Stepping into the new role as President is Louise Kelly, who has been a Director on the board of The Lady Musgrave Trust for several years.

“Patricia has been the heart and soul of The Lady Musgrave Trust for many years now,” says Louise. “The hard work and dedication that she has put into the Trust means that she is leaving a legacy of a professionally run charity, well respected for the important work that it does in supporting vulnerable women in Queensland.

“For those of us who have had the privilege of working with Patricia and learning from her, we wish her all the best in her retirement and thank her on behalf of the many women whose lives have been positively impacted by the work she has done.”

Incoming President Louise Kelly pictured with Patricia McCormack at The Lady Musgrave Trust’s High Tea Fundraiser

The Lady Musgrave Trust CEO Karen Lyon Reid says the Trust’s successes could not have been achieved without Patricia’s leadership.

“Under Patricia’s stewardship, the legacy Lady Musgrave established 136 years ago will continue well beyond the 136th year we now celebrate.”

Although it is a sad moment for Patricia, she remains confident that Louise, together with Karen and the remaining Board members, will ably take the Trust forward to a very positive future.

“I believe the Trust is now in a very good position and will continue its growth and success in the future. I must thank the generous support of our many contributors – our donors, sponsors, volunteers and our partners who are a vital part of our story. Thank you also to the past and current Directors who have worked with me over this time.”

While we are sad to see her go, The Lady Musgrave Trust wishes Patricia all the best for her next chapter.

Thank you, Patricia.

The Lady Musgrave Trust has announced a bold new initiative in response to the alarming increase in older women facing homelessness.

The Queensland charity — dedicated to sheltering vulnerable women and their children — has launched the Ending Homelessness for Older Women project.

With generous support from the Cromwell Property Group Foundation, the project will seek to establish a centralised ‘one-stop shop’ for at-risk and homeless women over 50, pooling together all the resources that are available to them in one handy guide.

At least 12,000 copies of the guide will be published and distributed to mature-aged women who are at risk of homelessness or already homeless, providing them with information about vital and life-saving services.

Karen Lyon Reid, the Chief Executive Officer of The Lady Musgrave Trust, said that women aged over 50 are the fastest growing group of people at risk of homelessness in Australia.

“The ABS Census Data identified a 31 per cent increase in older women’s homelessness over 5 years,” Ms Lyon Reid said.

“That’s an alarming increase in women facing homelessness and we need to address these statistics.”

While the statistics are confronting, Ms Lyon Reid said the problem may actually be worse than it appears.

“This demographic is often invisible, and the statistics don’t tell the full story,” she said.

“Many of these women end up staying with friends, in motels, or sleeping rough in their cars — they’re very private people and they feel ashamed about their circumstances, so it’s hard to capture those people in the Census.”

Ms Lyon Reid said a perfect storm of factors have contributed to the increase in the number of older women facing homelessness, including relationship breakdowns, domestic violence, pay and superannuation inequity, and a reluctance and lack of awareness about how to seek support.

“Older women experiencing homelessness for the first time often don’t know where to turn,” she said.

“The resources intended to help them are spread out all over the place at the moment, and these women don’t know where to find it.

“The Ending Homelessness for Older Women project will empower older women with information about how to help themselves out of a difficult situation.”

The Lady Musgrave Trust is currently communicating with peak bodies and charitable organisations and undertaking extensive research to put together the guide.

“The Lady Musgrave Trust has been doing this for a long time, and we know that the right way to tackle these problems is not in isolation — it’s to create a network and leverage everybody’s knowledge,” she said.

The Ending Homelessness for Older Women project will also include an accommodation pilot program in Ipswich, utilising the Trust’s property portfolio to co-locate older women with younger women, fostering mutual learning and cross-generational mentoring.

The project’s findings will be presented at The Lady Musgrave Trust’s 12th Annual Forum for Women and Homelessness in August 2020.

“The Trust is turning 135 years old next year,” Ms Lyon Reid said, “and there’s no better way for us to commemorate this milestone than by delivering this very important project.”

Ms Lyon Reid said The Lady Musgrave Trust — which provides about 8,000 bed nights of safe accommodation for vulnerable women and their children each year — is looking forward to collaborating with like-minded organisations like the Zonta Club of Brisbane on this project. The Trust relies on support from many individuals, companies and organisations to support its work.

“There are significant costs involved in this project, and the more the public and the business community gets behind it and supports it, the more we’ll be able to do for these older homeless and at-risk women,” she said.

Donate to The Lady Musgrave Trust at ladymusgravetrust.org.au/make-a-donation

Paula Barrett is an expert when it comes to building resilience to help navigate life’s ups and downs.

As a scholar and groundbreaking researcher in the field of psychology and resilience, she has been internationally recognised in the top 1 per cent of global publishers within her field and has received many awards throughout her career – including the Highly Commended Certificate in the Human Rights Medal of the Australian Human Rights Commission for her contribution to the well being of children, youth and the wider community.

This makes Paula Barrett the perfect keynote speaker for The Lady Musgrave Trust’s 2019 Forum on Women and Homelessness.

Why is resilience so important? Barrett says it acts as a foundation in our lives.

“There are always challenges throughout life that everyone has to be able to learn to cope with and continue to move forward and confidently embrace life opportunities, despite what has happened in the past,” she says.

“Whether that’s a challenge in the family, a career setback, an illness, a natural disaster or an unpredictable traumatic event, there are always life situations where we need to rise up and be strong.

“That means learning how to cope in positive ways and also finding support networks and developing healthy coping mechanisms.”

Barrett says that resilience “is really a collection of life skills”.

“It’s like building a reservoir of life skills so that you can approach challenges in a positive, confident way.”

And empowerment is key, she says.

“I really believe in empowering people with skills so they can have a stronger approach, more self-confidence, be healthier and have an enhanced sense of wellbeing – people from all sectors of society deserve this,” Barrett says.

“Some people are born more resilient than others, but we can all learn as a population to be more resilient.

“Just like we can learn to be better and stronger at any other skill, like swimming or singing, we can all learn resilience independent of age, cultural background, gender and other factors.”

Barrett says some of the most important skills to learn include developing and understanding emotions and feelings – learning how to self regulate and self soothe, developing empathy and compassion, and understanding emotions in others.

“It’s important to learn to pay attention to the five senses and the positive aspects of life around us,” she says.

“It’s equally important to learn to be able to adapt our thinking – about ourselves, others and our environment – from negative to positive.

“And there’s the capacity to be present, and mindful.

“Building resilience is a lifelong pursuit, but one that we can choose to learn at any stage in our lives.”

Paula Barrett is a keynote speaker at the The 11th Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness, which will explore themes around building resilience, surviving and thriving, in Brisbane on Wednesday 7 August, 2019.

Madonna King has a deep and unique understanding of what makes young women tick.

Apart from being one of Australia’s most accomplished journalists and the author of nine books, King’s most recent work is the best-selling study on just how dads and their teen girls get along, Fathers and Daughters.

Her research saw her talking to young women across the country and the many professionals who interact with them on a daily basis, making King the perfect keynote speaker for The Lady Musgrave Trust’s 2019 Forum on Women and Homelessness.

The author has gained a wealth of insight into the worlds and minds of young women and how they experience the world they’re growing up in today.

“Over the last two years I’ve interviewed about 1500 girls, 400 dads, 60 mums, dozens and dozens of school principals, teen psychologists, teachers, guidance officers and parenting experts,” King says.

“And as a mother of two teenagers, I can see a real concern relating to tomorrow’s female leaders.”

She cites a “lack of connectedness” as a key issue, despite the fact that young girls are often connected via a phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“Many of them are utterly alone and dealing with really serious things,” she says.

“When we were children and we had an argument at school, we could come home and close the doors and home was a sanctuary – and often only one parent was working.

“Now a girl will come home and go into her room, where any kind of argument can escalate and go right through the night.

“This sense of fitting in is so big now that our girls will almost do anything largely to fit in.

“The quandary they’re in, in who they are, their identity, is much more difficult than when we were that age.

“They are not talking to their parents, they are being influenced by people online they’ve never met. There’s a tsunami of instant gratification.

“What’s the impact of this?”

King will share her insights into those impacts and much more when she speaks at the 2019 Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness in Brisbane on Wednesday 7 August.

“My heart goes out to them,” King says.

“They’re just so vulnerable in a world so different from the people making policy and indeed their own parents.”

King says there is an “epidemic of anxiety among teen girls” and that they commonly experience “dramatic highs and lows”.

“I think we have high expectations of our girls and they have high expectations of themselves.”

She also says the importance of parents should never be underestimated – particularly dads.

“Too many fathers settle for the role of provider, not parent – and I think there is a generation of teenagers screaming out for contact with their parents.

“And in a busy busy world, we as parents have to stop and ensure we’re not just listening to our kids but really hearing what they’re telling us.”

Madonna King is a keynote speaker at the The 11th Annual Forum on Women and Homelessness, which will explore themes around building resilience, surviving and thriving, in Brisbane on Wednesday 7 August.

L-R (back) Bridget Clark, Brittanie Dreghorn, Kate Hudson, CEO Karen Lyon Reid
L-R (front) Brianna Kelly, Georgia Amery

Queensland’s oldest charity and champion for homeless women The Lady Musgrave Trust has appointed its first Youth Advisory Committee to support its Executive Board.

The strategically selected members of the committee will provide insight from the viewpoint of younger people to help shape the Trust’s various business functions, says The Lady Musgrave Trust Chief Executive Officer Karen Lyon Reid.

“We’ve selected five women between the ages of 18-30 who specialise or have experience in different business functions or areas of the community,” she says.

“As a group, the Youth Advisory Committee will be expected to generate suggestions for consideration by the Board in relation to opportunities for revenue raising, promotion and advertising, recruitment of future members, and training opportunities.”

The Youth Advisory Committee members have been appointed for an initial period of 2 years. They are:

• Georgia Amery – Analyst at Deloitte
• Brianna Kelly – Bid Manager APAC at Architecture Firm Populous
• Kate Hudson – Full time student
• Bridget Clark – Marketing professional at NFP Arts Organisation Voices of Birralee
• Brittanie Dreghorn – Marketing professional at The Content Division

Committee member Bridget Clark says she wanted to be a part of the Youth Advisory Committee because she believes in The Lady Musgrave Trust’s cause and is passionate about the non-profit sector.

“I am hoping to be pushed beyond my comfort zone and to develop new skills and ways of thinking, both rationally and emotionally, to create positive change in the lives of homeless women and children,” Ms Clark says.

Committee member Brittanie Dreghorn says she’s excited to join the Trust and share insights from a young professional’s perspective.

“Homelessness can happen to anyone from any background so I think there’s work to be done in communicating that and also the services provided by The Lady Musgrave Trust,” she says.

“Solving the issue of homelessness relies on so many other things including helping victims of domestic violence, increasing safe access to public health services and much more, so in the meantime having support and housing for women is really important.”

Brianna Kelly says she was shocked to hear that homelessness is even a possibility for women her age.

“Homelessness does not discriminate and I hope to get involved to raise enough awareness and money to completely eradicate the problem, not only for the young women of Brisbane but for all homeless people,” she says.

Kate Hudson said she was excited to be joining The Lady Musgrave Trust team because of their excellent work already being achieved.

“I am looking forward to contributing and producing innovative solutions to tough problems,” she says.

Committee member Georgia Amery has worked with a number of non-profit and independent community organisations, and is a passionate advocate for equal opportunity.

“I believe in empowering all individuals to thrive and am honoured to assist women and children in need through the work of The Lady Musgrave Trust,” Ms Amery says.

The group will get together for an initial introduction to the Trust and its activities on 2 May before they start attending regular meetings and events.

The first event the Committee will be assisting with is The Lady Musgrave Trust’s Annual Forum for Women and Homelessness on Wednesday 7 August, 2019.

Find out more about The Lady Musgrave Trust and its work here.